Name and Location
Mbalam-Nabeba iron-ore project, between Cameroon and the Republic of Congo (RoC).

Client
Sundance Resources.

Project Description
The project scope will be to mine 35-million tonnes a year from iron deposits in Cameroon and the RoC and to construct a 510 km rail line from the Mbarga mine, in Cameroon, and a 70 km rail spur line, connecting the Nabeba mine, in the RoC. The rail line/spur will transport iron-ore to the Cameroon coast.

The scope will also include construction of a new deep-water iron-ore export terminal at Kribi, which will accommodate bulk iron-ore carriers of 300 000 deadweight tons in size.

The project will be completed in phases, with Stage 1 focusing on a direct shipping ore (DSO) project for a minimum of ten years and Stage 2 extending the life of the operation by more than 15 years for the production of high-grade itabirite hematite concentrate.

Stage 1’s mineral reserves currently total 436.3-million tonnes at 62.6% iron.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Not stated.

Value
A capital expenditure of $4.6-billion will be required to start up the DSO operation.

Duration
Construction is planned for late 2014, with a targeted first iron-ore shipment planned for the last quarter of the same year.

Latest Developments
Sundance has increased the high-grade hematite ore reserve for the first stage of its Mbalam-Nabeba project to more than half-a-billion tonnes.

The 18.5% increase to the ore reserve, which is estimated at 517-million tonnes, grading 62.2% iron, is driven by the optimisation of the high-grade ore-reserve process during pit design and mine scheduling phases. This produces a complementary premium product by controlling the proportion of the feed ore from the Cameroon mines to blend with feed ore from the higher alumina RoC mines.

A recently reported increase in the production rate from 35-million tonnes a year to 40-million tonnes a year has also maximised the run-of-mine ore feed and proportion of blend of DSO with lower-grade ores over the full Stage 1 life-of-mine.

The reserve increase has also been driven by the mining and processing of lower-grade ores through a gravity beneficiation circuit from the start of operations, rather than from the fourth year of operations and additional indicated hematite resources estimated for the Mbalam and Nabeba deposits.

The company has also reported a 4% increase in the high-grade hematite mineral resource at the project, currently estimated at 805.7-million tonnes, grading 57.3% iron. About 96% of this resource has been classified as indicated.

The underlying itabirite hematite resource has also increased by 39% to 5.6-billion tonnes, grading at 33.4% iron.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
WorleyParsons (prefeasibility study); Mota-Engil Africa (EPC) and Standard Bank (funding and lead debt arranger).

On Budget and on Time?
Too early to state.

Contact Details for Project Information
Sundance Resources, tel +61 8 9220 2300, fax +61 8 9220 2309 or email info@sundanceresources.com.au.
Mota-Engil Africa communication office Dr António Capinha, tel +351 214 158 200, fax +351 214 158 700 or email Antonio.capinha@mota-engil.pt.